A senior Indonesian general is being sued for crimes against humanity,
after The Independent revealed a document implicating him in his army's
murderous rampage in East Timor last September.

In the first concrete step towards legal redress for victims of last
year's bloodshed, Major-General Johny Lumintang was served notice of the
lawsuit late on Thursday as he stepped off a flight from Washington DC.
The lawsuit has been brought by American human rights groups on behalf of
three victims of the Indonesian military, which embarked on a two-week
campaign of murder and destruction after East Timor voted overwhelmingly
for independence from Indonesia last year.

The complaint, filed in the District of Columbia, alleges that General
Lumintang, as the army's deputy chief of staff, "directed, planned,
instigated, conspired, aided, abetted, incited and failed to prevent
and/or is otherwise responsible for the campaign of crimes against
humanity and gross violations of human rights law ... in East Timor".
The East Timorese plaintiffs are demanding damages for cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment including torture and a summary execution by troops
acting under the general's authority.

The principal evidence cited in the complaint is a document published
in The Independent in February, which was discovered by a local human
rights group in a deserted military headquarters in the East Timorese
capital, Dili. Dated 5 May, and signed by General Lumintang, the secret
letter is addressed to Colonel Tono Suratman, the military commander in
Dili, and copied to senior military figures. It consists of an order to
implement "repressive/coercive measures" and a plan to
"move to the rear/evacuate if the second option [independence] is
chosen".

The plaintiffs in the case, who remain unidentified for fear of
reprisals, are three East Timorese who were active in the struggle against
Indonesian occupation. One is the mother of a man who died after being
shot in his home. The second is a man whose foot had to be amputated after
he was beaten up and shot by Indonesian soldiers. The third is a man whose
brother was killed and father injured as they tried to hide from marauding
soldiers and proIndonesian militiamen.

Major-General Lumintang is one of a number of senior Indonesian
officers to have been trained in the United States under the Pentagon's
International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. Yayasan Hak,
the East Timorese organisation that uncovered the letter, also found a
secret commando training manual, bearing the general's name, advising the
use of terror, kidnapping and sabotage.

In January, a UN Commission of Inquiry and an Indonesian government
investigation found that senior Indonesian officers orchestrated
systematic human rights violations after the 30 August referendum, in
which almost 80 per cent of Timorese voted for independence. A number of
East Timorese militiamen are being held pending trials in Dili, but no
charges have yet been brought against senior officers.

Six years ago, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, one
of the groups behind the current case, successfully sued another
Indonesian general for his role in a massacre in Dili in 1991 in which as
many as 270 people died. Major-General Sintong Panjaitan was ordered to
pay $14m in damages to the mother of a New Zealand student who was killed,
although none of the award has been paid.

Both cases are based on the US Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, which
allows anyone to sue for acts committed outside the US "in violation
of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States". Even if the
case is successful, it will not send General Lumintang to jail. But it may
make visits to America more difficult for him and other officers
implicated in the East Timor violence.

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